Professional development for inservice K-8 mathematics teachers is vital to support teachers’ growth in the field. This webinar will focus on two NSF projects — a STEM-C project emphasizing mathematical modeling and an MSP project supporting teachers in advancing their knowledge about the teaching and learning of middle school mathematics. The STEM-C project engaged K-6 teachers in California, Montana and Virginia in one week of professional development (PD) followed by teacher study groups and a culminating conference. In this webinar we will focus on parallels between the affordances of mathematical modeling in three contexts: professional development, teaching and learning of mathematics. The MSP project was led by community college faculty to build partnerships among Arizona schools/districts and the colleges. Teachers were supported in shifting their thinking about mathematics as a set of skills and procedures to thinking about mathematics as a collection of well-connected ideas that anchors their curriculum and instruction. Participants will leave with ideas about how they can positively impact teachers' relationships with mathematics through professional development.

This project is funded by the National Science Foundation, grant # 0822241, 1449550, and 1650648. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in these materials are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.